Fresh off the "Moz://a" branding from last year, Mozilla is creating new iconography for Firefox and the many Firefox derivatives it ships. The Mozilla blog showed off two competing design systems that will dictate the future look of the Firefox logo and is asking for feedback on the new designs.

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The blog explains the reasoning for a redesign, saying, "As an icon, that fast fox with a flaming tail doesn’t offer enough design tools to represent this entire product family. Recoloring that logo or dissecting the fox could only take us so far. We needed to start from a new place." It produced two designs called just "System 1" and "System 2," and while there won't be any direct voting, you can leave a comment on the Mozilla blog with your preferences. Mozilla also notes these aren't final, and "Each individual icon will undergo several rounds of refinement, or may change entirely, between now and their respective product launches."

For both systems, Mozilla cooked up a whopping 12 icons, which not only cover the current Firefox derivatives but also "all of the Firefox products in the pipeline and those still in the minds of our Emerging Technologies group." Each system also starts with a "masterbrand icon" meant to cover the entire Firefox brand and would "show up in [Mozilla's] marketing, at events, in co-branding with partners, and in places like the Google Play Store where our products can be found." While both systems still contain a recognizable circular fox logo for the main Firefox browser, this isn't necessarily the case for the masterbrand icon. System 1 seems like the real departure here and would use a stylized fox head as the brand's primary logo.

As far as feedback goes, Mozilla is asking questions like, "Do these two systems still feel like Firefox?" and "How visually cohesive is each [system]?" You can give your feedback to Mozilla here.

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Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo

I don't want to sound negative but it looks like the early KDE icons - and I don't mean that in a good way. The move should be towards minimalism, flat and simple colour selection that product a memorable brand that people will remember.

Its not a camera, its supposed to be the new icon for Firefox Focus (privacy focused browser with 0 tracking or storage whatsoever). As far as I understand, the aperture icon in set one is a pun whereas the one in set 2 is supposed to be some sort of self intertwined ouroborosy focusy thingy.

Guesses on the random icons: the second of five is a picture app of some variety. The third icon is a password manager. Both second icons have what appears to be a picture of a mountain. The third has a lock in one set, and a star that reminds me very much of LastPass in the other.

I thought a Firefox was a red panda, not a red fox (there is a pun in there). The logo, it no look like a panda. (Humor: I know a few users that still call it "foxfire".

I cannot find any information that suggests the red panda is called the firefox other than in some English vernacular, but there is no proof of this other than circular arguments. The Chinese call it "cat-bear" and "fire-cat."

Not sure what the System 1 primary icon is supposed to be, but it doesn't really provide that iconic feel that the Firefox logo does. System 2 primary at least purveys some of that feeling, to me anyway.

Actually, now that I looked at it again, I kind of see it...a foxes face. Still not sure I like it that much.

The web browser and the web browser alone is the Firefox brand. No one is confused by it, and it has over a decade worth of name recognition. Changing what the brand represents will not help, only hurt.

If they want to rebrand things, they can start by rebranding things under the Mozilla name, and maybe changing the Mozilla branding back to something reasonable.

I'd prefer they leave the current browser icon alone. However, System 1 would be my preference as it follows a more consistent colour scheme. Solid blocks of colour also look better than outlines against a variety of backgrounds.

That System 1 T-shirt concept is not good though. The lower X will draw attention to the size of your gut

I would not have associated System 1 masterbrand with a fox without being told. I can see it now, but it's very abstract. To me it looks more like an open book/magazine. System 2 actually looks like an updated Firefox logo, but don't care for the nonbrowser icons.

System 1 at least has consistent color/design though. Just think could do with a masterbrand redesign.

That System 1 T-shirt concept is not good though. The lower X will draw attention to the size of your gut

I had the opposite initial reaction, thought it might accentuate a flat stomach. But you're right - and also... the mockup is kinda superficial. That's not how the graphic, with razor straight sharp lines will look on floppy curved fabric.

Honestly, I had no awareness of anything other than the main Firefox icons. None of the others look meaningful to me in any way.

Am I the only one who can't identify what the heck some of the icons would be used for? I mean, shouldn't the icons be more self-explanatory or something? And if the icons in the same positions are the same then it's even worse. edit: I did consider the fact that some icons are for products not yet launched btw!

Also, as others sais, primary from 1, 2 for the rest (if we must choose one). But don't touch the primary would be a general good rule. Masterbrand shouldn't be messed with. (edited for clarification)

Change for the sake of change is always fairly silly. But changing an icon for the sake of change, when the literal purpose of an icon is to be a recognizable pictograph that has a 1:1 correspondence to the program to be launched, is the reductio ad absurdum of change for the sake of change.

They're all fine, but what's wrong with the icon my brain already associates with Firefox?

I like the idea of having a master company icon different from the browser icon. So System 1's mater icon makes sense. But I prefer the browser-specific icons of System 2 better. The other apps are kinda a grab-bag, but I overall prefer System 1 there.

Note that "about:" no longer works to display detailed version info as it continues to do in every other major browser. It now requires navigating to a menu option instead which generates a pop-up window.

"System 2" master icon retains some elements of the current firefox icon and this would be my preference.

I agree with this. Except for the rest of the icons.

In UI/UX the rule is to always be intuitive; an icon or symbol should be easy to interpret without explanation, especially to the most novice of user.

I can’t really intuit WTF half of those icons are for. I might be able to look at them for a few minutes and figure it out, but that negates the purpose of an icon - to quickly convey what would normally be done in words through a simple image.

I can’t really intuit WTF half of those icons are for. I might be able to look at them for a few minutes and figure it out, but that negates the purpose of an icon - to quickly convey what would normally be done in words through a simple image.

Leaving aside the company's other merits and faults, it would be hard to top Office's icon suite.

Differentiated by unchanging color and letter, with a common design to unify the program suite. Green plus 'X' has meant I'm about to open Excel for almost twenty years.